The Patient Better Academy

Because your care partner wants to work with you at a higher, more productive level and use time and resources efficiently. Patient Better gives you a shared foundation of healthcare knowledge—how to better engage in your visits, document changes between visits, ask focused questions, and share updates in a consistent way. With this baseline for self-advocacy, you can navigate the system confidently, coordinate services more smoothly with your clinicians, and your family stays aligned—reducing back-and-forth and preventing common, avoidable missteps.

The Patient Better Project is a 501(c)(3) public-health education nonprofit created to solve today’s post-pandemic, post–electronic health record (EHR) challenges—short visits, fragmented information across portals, and communication gaps during care transitions. We expand your access to care through education, so people can use the services they already have to their fullest potential. Our focus is whole-person care and patient autonomy: teaching health consumers to prepare, coordinate, and advocate confidently—so care is clearer, safer, and more effective for everyone involved.

Patient Better helps people take control of their healthcare.
We teach you how to stay organized, keep track of your medical records, understand your insurance, and communicate better with your doctors. With our tools and step-by-step guidance, you’ll feel more confident managing appointments, following treatment plans, and making informed decisions on your own. In short, Patient Better makes navigating healthcare simpler, less stressful, and more empowering.

If you’re like most people, you’ve been expected to manage your care without ever being taught how—this program gives you the foundation to navigate your care journey with clarity. Your appointment is an opportunity to heal, not a transaction. Most of us were taught that “preparing” means bringing an ID and insurance card, showing up, and leaving as passive recipients. That’s how you end up scrambling to ask the right questions, forgetting key details, and walking out with more frustration than answers.

This program replaces guesswork with a simple process: set a goal for the visit, list your top questions, track changes to symptoms and medications between visits, and share updates in a consistent way. The result is less catch-up and more treatment, smoother handoffs when multiple people are involved, and a family that stays aligned. In short, you’ll use the care you already have to its fullest—and feel confident doing it.

Through this program, you will learn the foundation of how the healthcare system works, along with the analytical skills needed to make informed medical decisions and move through the system more efficiently. You’ll gain tools to protect yourself from preventable errors and missteps, while also learning how to communicate more clearly with providers—which supports proper diagnosing, better treatment planning, and safer care overall.

This knowledge ensures your family prepared and confident in managing care. This education helps prevent misunderstandings, delays, and repeated explanations that often happen when different people are involved. When a loved one is cared for by multiple family members, communication gaps can lead to confusion or missed details. This program teaches everyone how to stay on the same page, share information accurately, and protect themselves from preventable errors. Families who participate find provider visits more effective and daily care less overwhelming because everyone knows what’s happening and what to do next.

We price this as a smart investment in your healthcare because the cost of “doing nothing” is high. The U.S. spent about $4.9 trillion on healthcare in 2023—roughly $14,500 per person. Low health literacy alone drives $106–$238 billion in avoidable costs each year, and patients with inadequate health literacy are about three times more likely to revisit the ER within 90 days. Our program teaches the skills that reduce those avoidable costs—preparing for visits, documenting changes, sharing information across family and providers, and making informed decisions. As a 501(c)(3), we keep pricing as low as we can while sustaining the mission.

By comparison, the Patient Better program requires only a one-time $250 contribution to our nonprofit will equip you with lifelong advocacy skills while fuel our mission to guide more people toward clarity, confidence, and control in their care. This education gives families practical skills to reduce preventable errors, avoid duplicate or unnecessary services, and make the most of every visit—benefits that can pay for themselves many times over.

Sources:

1. The National Health Expenditure fact sheet
2. Impact of low health literacy on patients’ health outcomes: a multicenter cohort study
3. Understanding the Literacy and Health Literacy Link
4. Trends in health care spending

Patient Better Academy is self-paced—about five hours total across six courses (23 micro-lessons). After you purchase, the Patient Better Startup Kit ships free via UPS Ground with tracking from our Wisconsin distribution center. The kit includes a handbook, workbook, medical journal, Operator’s Manual, Healthcare Manager, and a security key for access to the online academy, along with step-by-step access instructions. You can watch on any device, start and stop anytime, and learn with your family so everyone stays on the same page.